First, 20-30 miles it was chilly and off and on pouring rain, which turned the nice dirt into not-so-nice clingy mud. The sort that makes each foot weigh 5 pounds more than normal, etc. It was fairly heinous. On the plus side, I got so much mud on one side of my body from a time I fell that I didn't need to bother with sunscreen there after the sun finally came out.

Even concrete jungles sometimes have trails. Still, it's why most of the year I hop in my car and drive out of the city to the woods to trail run every Saturday and Sunday. Even if I wasn't taking trips for races once or twice a year, I'd still rather get off the pavement once in a while. (Or every day, if I really could.)